Types of paranoia:
Mistrust - being overly suspicious of other's intentions and find it difficult to trust others with no evidence to back up the feelings.
Interpersonal Sensitivity - you interoperate other's non-verbal language negatively.
Ideas of reference - false beliefs that random or irrelevant events directly relate to you. This can include paranoia.
Persecutory - you believe that someone, or something, is mistreating, spying, or is out to harm you (or someone close to you). You might make complaints to authorities. Doctors consider this type to be delusions.
The severity of the paranoia relies on:
- How much you believe the thoughts
- How much you think about the paranoid thoughts
- The thoughts cause distress
- And if the thoughts interfere with your daily life
What is paranoia?
Paranoia is a way a person can think that leads to feelings of distrust and suspicion of others without any real evidence. Paranoia often involves thoughts of someone is out to get you or harm you. Paranoia can also go the other way by having thoughts of threats to others, your culture, or society.
Paranoia varies in severity and can be temporary or long term. It is the most common symptom of psychosis - over 70% of people with psychosis have paranoia. You can also have mild paranoid concerns without having psychosis. Mild paranoid thoughts are common in the general population.
Paranoia can be a type of delusion - an unshakable belief in something that isn't true. Not all delusions are about feeling threatened or like someone is going to do you harm. Delusions can also be thoughts that someone important to you or famous is in love with you. This isn't paranoia.
What causes paranoia?
Paranoia can be caused by many things such as:
- Childhood trauma, especially bullying, and victimization.
- Environmental factors, like low socioeconomic status and social isolation.
- Intense or chronic stress.
Paranoia is part of psychosis, which is a state of being disconnected from reality. People with psychosis may have beliefs or thoughts of things that aren't real or what they think they have experienced. They may also experience things that aren't real.
Moderate to severe paranoia can be a symptom of certain mental health conditions, including:
- Paranoid personality disorder (PPD): PPD is a mental health condition marked by a long-term pattern of distrust and suspicion of others without adequate reason to be suspicious. You often think that others are trying to demean, harm or threaten you.
- Delusional disorder: Delusional disorder is a type of psychotic disorder. Its main symptom is the presence of one or more delusions. A delusion is an unshakable belief in something untrue. The belief isn’t a part of your culture or subculture, and almost everyone else knows this belief to be false.
- Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that severely affects how you think, feel and behave. It often involves paranoia.
Signs of Paranoia:
- Finding it difficult to trust others.
- Obsessing over the loyalty or trustworthiness of loved ones.
- Being overly suspicious of others’ intentions.
- Assuming people are saying negative things about you “behind your back.”
- Feeling like you’re being exploited.
- Persistently holding grudges.
- Thinking that people — even strangers — are out to get you.
- Difficulty coping with any kind of criticism.
- Assigning negative meanings to other people’s remarks.
- Being reactive or always on the defensive.
- Being hostile, aggressive and argumentative.
- Believing in unfounded conspiracy theories.
- Considering the world to be a place of constant threat.
